‘We can’t just pretend that everything’s OK in the regions’: what went wrong in Wangaratta?

After Indi MP Helen Haines was allegedly attacked on Monday, people across the electorate are questioning how something like this could happen – and if anything could have been done to prevent it Something changed a few years ago. Brendan Nugent had been a reasonably prominent conservationist when Helen Haines – a longtime friend of his family – became his federal MP in 2019. He would sometimes visit his state MP’s electoral office, raising issues about forest preservation. Other locals in the north-east Victorian city of Wangaratta remember him back to his junior footy days, when he played alongside future stars of the AFL. But a few years later, according to those who knew him, he changed.